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Good. We deserve it all the blowback coming our way.

I overdress for it and use that as thermal layering since crashing one at 32kmh is basically equivalent to falling off a one floor house. What I spend now, I make up for in lost wages and physical therapy costs that I'd incur from breaking a single bone.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6XSHJ95 - Reinforced jacket with pads everywhere I'm likely to contact and a fleece layer. If I keep it open I'm good to ride up to 35C, fully zipped and insulated it's all I need to ride at 0C.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DY81F43X - Reinforced gloves with pads, wrist guards, and webbed fingers to keep me from splaying them out in a crash. These are all I need to 5C, with a thermal layer beneath them if colder

amazon.com/dp/B0FK4KTCSQ - Heated gloves. These allow me to ride to -20C which is my max. At that point I have two layers of pants, 4~ torso layers, a scarf, a full helmet, and a ski mask which makes it bearable.

amazon.com/dp/B094X9C28Y - Full face helmet. I use this one when it's cold and an open one (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZXZK6BC) when it's hot. If the weather is nice and I don't plan to do any risky riding, I wear a normal half shell helmet with MIPS.

I also use a smartwatch that has accelerometer-linked fall detection (Google Pixel). If I go down, it tries to wake me for a minute before calling 911 and my emergency contact with GPS coordinates. Both android and apple options do that. It's a nice backup that also lets me dial in my heartrate to the target zone (220 minus your age, 50-80% of that) and maintain it across the ride. The only other accessory I'd want for safety is one of those Garmin traffic radars that audibly alerts you as it detects cars.

i've read that drivers give you more room if you have long hair and no helmet, so gear kinda depends on what you're worried about. there's crashes where you want it, crashes where no amount of it will save you, and crashes where maybe you'd rather die from it than have lifelong problems and debt.

They seem really solid. I wish I had gone with a fat tyre over my commuter bike for the extra utility on bad surfaces. It's marginally easier to pedal mine if the battery goes dead for some reason, but I take a bigger risk if the weather is bad or I have to ride on gravel/bumpy dirt.

dont forget about mopeds. a honda ruckus retails for 3000. i own one and have saved so many miles on the family car ( recession has already reduced us to a one car family) and it gets over 100 miles a gallon.

What is the AK-47 of ebikes, and how would I know?

Reputable existing high quality bike brand (they made bikes before ebikes were even a thing) standard non-e-bike then add to that a reputable brand conversion kit and either do the work yourself or pay a shop to do so. Use the top name brand components (like Shimano for the motor for example). Problem is with the bike itself unless you're buying a used bike and get a good deal you're probably looking at $3000-$4000 or more for this set-up.

Upside is because it's entirely off the shelf components there's nothing proprietary and you should be able to repair it indefinitely short of major damage to the bike frame. Downside is it's costly and involved. Also because it doesn't come in a preassembled package you need to either find a bike shop you trust to recommend components or do a lot of individual research per part.

Aside from that I guess Aventon is supposedly pretty cheap and okay. Other decent brands are going to be closer to the custom built bike in terms of costs.

I hate that about the industry. Almost every article and video is astroturfed, while most sales are fake unless a model is being phased out. So far the closest I've found to an AK-47 is a Tern cargo bike. The components in those are solid enough to last upwards of a decade. I expect 3-5 years of reliable heavy use from a brand like Aventon or Velotric in the budget tier, but in 3-5 years I expect those brands to have much more capable bikes worth upgrading to while donating my old one. The brand-specific subreddits gave me a good sense of each model's problems while I cross-referenced videos to judge comparisons between them.

There's nothing wrong with a regular bike and it has the upsides you listed. I was a bike commuter (on a commuter bike made for utility, not a road one made for speed) for four years before I bought an ebike and here's what it got me:

• I never have a reason to avoid biking. Too cold or hot? I'll arrive without being too sweaty or frostbitten. Too windy? I always have a tailwind. Too tired after working 10 hours in the sun? I always have a throttle and the strength of a world-class athlete. Too hilly? All terrain is flattened. Too long a ride? I'll arrive refreshed instead of tired and have the energy to go hiking/work a really physical job.

• It feels like biking as a child. On my normal bike, everything is effort so I end up choosing the most efficient routes and keeping it at speed to avoid having to pedal more. On my ebike, casually pedaling reaches the same top speed as using maximum effort on my normal bike. I go out of my way to explore, see things that otherwise wouldn't be worth the effort, and stop without the pain of starting. Having all that strength and energy makes it fun instead of punishing, and zipping along at those speeds is as fun as driving in a canyon.

• It carries weight easily. On my normal bike I don't like doing errands. Weight feels wonky and makes it much harder to ride, especially if I am transporting something bulky. With my ebike I feel confident riding with 40kg on the back have safely maxed out its 63kg limit. This makes it a very practical car replacement for any urban need I've had short of moving between apartments.

• It's as fast or faster than urban driving. Starting easily from a stop and easily maintaining the appropriate max speed for that surface means I can get anywhere in my city about as fast as driving and parking. On my normal bike I'm going slower with more effort.

• It's entirely pleasant. On my normal bike I'm too distracted from the effort to take in the landscape. Last night I went from eating dinner to a 15km ride mostly consisting of birdwatching. My situational awareness becomes so much better with my ebike, especially for the most enriching parts of bike infrastructure and urban greenspace.

• It's there when you lose the capability to otherwise bike. I like how I get more muscle definition from the extra effort of my normal bike, but I can't exert that effort if I sprain my ankle or have any kind of illness. If I drive in those moments I'm risking my most expensive possession at a higher speed, if I take public transit my travel time is at least doubled. As long as I'm conscious I probably feel okay riding my ebike to a hospital or work without that being more physically taxing or unsafe than I can handle. It's a godsend on days where I have migraines or muscle spasms in my legs. It will be vital for me when I'm 40 and my joints start going or 80 and I can't drive or bike safely.

because biking is extremely shitty in a lot of places due to poor infrastructure and being half way to a motorcycle makes a lot of that tolerable.

a push bike isn't better if it doesn't displace drives.

Ebikes offer a ton of upside in range, rideability, and other conveniences for this who are interested in investing in them. Even with the price tag, they are a much easier sell to a layperson than an analog bike, and most people who would consider riding a bike already would by now.

I prefer regular bikes but e-bikes have their place if you want to move heavy stuff (including kids) or want to get around but aren't physically able to use a regular bike to do so.

I'm really satisfied with the Specialized Vado

It varies country-to-country, but the main thing is that you want a long-established brand with the strictest battery safety standards you can find and the newest model available because that tech is advancing so rapidly. At least in the US I'm happy with my Aventon Abound LR, would side-upgrade to a Specialized Globe Haul, and am looking to upgrade to a Tern/Cannondale/Urban Arrow eventually as a long-term cargo bike. I would avoid the Lectric Xpedition because it has worse components than the Aventon, as well as Engwe and other direct-to-consumer brands (Aventon only gets a pass because it's a quality bike with a big service network, the main thing you'll struggle to find with a generic Amazon bike). Rad Power Bikes is the big one to avoid for battery safety and the company voiding warranties during their bankruptcy. If I could only buy one bike from the start, I would have invested in a Tern that stands up and has the highest rear rack weight rating I can find.

In terms of bike category, I value utility more than anything. Within the same ebike Class everything powers to the same speed, so the increased bulk of the cargo bike over my commuter bike doesn't really matter unless I'm storing it. I can fit a week's worth of groceries, big bulky items, two kids, an adult below 63kg, a full camping kit, or everything I need for my commute on the back. Carrying another adult with confidence in the frame is the only reason I want more weight capacity. The wider tyres allow it to handle better on uneven terrain and snow, while having a rear-hub motor allows me to use a throttle that makes starting painless. My commuter bike has a better quality mid-drive motor which makes it feel like a normal bike that I'm peddling with the strength of an Olympic athlete, but those don't handle throttles well so I'm actively pedaling even when it sucks to.

edit: And most importantly, a cheap bike is expensive. Cheap components either can't handle the stresses of ebikes or will fail within a few years of heavy use, at which point you're paying the cost of a new cheap bike to replace the motor and battery in a bike that doesn't feel good to ride. I thought I was saving money with my first purchase, a Lectric Xpress 750, and it sucked compared to my Aventon.

Tern is S-tier but you'll pay for it. Happy badger is very happy with their Aventon though and they're much cheaper.

Get one at a local bike shop that's willing to repair it or verify that a local bike shop can support whatever you buy. Or plan on fixing it yourself when the electronics inevitably have an issue.

There are many good brands and many okay brands but the biggest difference in overall experience will be what happens when it breaks and how often it breaks.

Decathlon has very cheap ebikes that are a good quality for the money.

Anything with a Bosch, Shimano, cyc, or tangshen mid drive motor (mounted in the bottom bracket, adds power at the crank) is a good starting point. Hub drive motors tend to be used on cheaper bikes. As someone else said, Aventon is a better choice among the lower price options

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